Car Through Ice

Two different vehicles broke through the ice on Lake Minnetonka Wednesday night. The Hennepin County Sheriff’s office says the first vehicle — an SUV with two teenage boys from Edina inside — went through thin ice near the Gray’s Bay channel in Wayzata Bay at about 5:40 p.m.

New reports say a Minnesota woman who drowned after her car plunged down a 40-foot embankment and crashed through ice in Wisconsin was legally drunk at the time. A La Crosse Tribune report says 21-year-old Ellen “Ellie” Ahmann of Winona, Minn., had just left the downtown tavern where she was tending bar on New Year’s Eve. Police reports obtained through an open-records request say her blood-alcohol level was 0.16 percent, or twice the legal limit.

Family and friends of a La Crosse, Wis., man who’s presumed drowned have spent the past week on the banks of the Mississippi River as a volunteer search crew works to recover his body. Chad Kingsbury is the brother of the missing man, 29-year-old Andrew Kingsbury.

Five frigid days have passed since an SUV plunged into the Mississippi River, killing four people. The deadly accident happened Sunday morning in Winona after Andrew Kingsbury, Matthew Erickson, Christina Hauser and Blake Overland left a local bar. Searchers have spent the week trying to find the body of 29-year-old Kingsbury. Chief Deputy Ron Ganrude with the Winona County Sheriff’s office has spent several days aiding in the search.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is sending a harsh reminder that despite our recent frigid and snowy conditions, ice on the state’s lakes is never 100 percent safe. That’s all too real for two men who had to escape from Lake Ida in Douglas County near Alexandria on Wednesday.